"Is there still no news about her whereabouts?"
Two men were currently talking inside a dimly lit room. One man is sitting behind a large desk that has a lantern and some paper documents scattered on it. The chair seems to be an expensive chair with soft leather covering the seat and the back part and the armrests are made out of decorated wood. His clothes are the usual attire you could see a noble wear, with expensive garments and accessories decorating his body.
While the other man is wearing a typical butler's black and white clothing is standing beside the chair. He looks neat and proper with his white hair combed and even though some wrinkles can be seen on his old face, little to no wrinkles can be spotted from the clothes he is wearing.
When the man sitting on the chair asked the butler, he answered
"I'm very sorry, sir. We've mobilized the forces we have to scurry around and outside the village to search for the young miss, but so far we've had no news regarding her."
"Why are those people so incompetent!" the man sitting on the chair slammed his fist onto the desk. You could see from the light of the desk lantern that the man's face was filled with emotions such as anger and worries. This afternoon, his daughter was suddenly kidnapped. They had searched the entire village for the whole day, but he didn't find anything other than a house that mysteriously exploded out of nowhere and there's no clue leading anywhere near his daughter's whereabouts from that house. And now, he decided to search for the other villages and the area around them.
"Forgive me master, but this place is at the border of the kingdom and there's not a lot of experts here. We've mobilized our people to search for them, but the rest are just hired people only on their first job or people with non-combat related jobs."
"What about asking for help from the nearest city? Is there any news?"
"We've sent out messenger birds, but it takes a few days for them to get here after receiving the news."
The mayor massaged his temple to ease the headache that has been bothering him since this afternoon. He tried to think of the reasons why this is happening.
'I told her to just stay at home for this reason, but did I do this wrong? Should I have let her go out with some guards so that she won't sneak out alone like that?'
'And has the tension in the capital become this bad? I ran all the way to this rural village to stay away from the conflicts and I don't even play an important role there, why are they targeting me all the way out here?'
When he was about to fall deeper in thoughts, a hurried step could be heard from the hallway and it was coming straight to the mayor's room, hard knocks could be heard from the door and the mayor ordered his butler to go and open the door.
When the door was opened, a servant could be seen sweating from running so fast from the front door all the way to the mayor's private room.
"What is it?" The butler asked
"I'm sorry sir! But, the young miss is back!"
"What?! Where is she?"
"She is currently in the reception room with 3 other people who seem to be the ones who saved her."
"Tell them I will soon be there." The mayor answered.
The servant then nodded and went back to the reception room to deliver the news.
"Bernard, ready my clothes and be cautious. We don't know if these people really have good intentions, tell the guards to stand by just in case something happens."
"Yes, my lord."
---
Mark, Faust, Angra, and Eleora are currently sitting on a long chair that looks like a sofa with a soft cushion under their bodies and behind their back, and right now they are served tea that is served by the servant that told them to go inside the house.
They are currently waiting for the mayor to come to the room. They went to the mayor's house by flying, with Angra and Eleora on Mark's shoulder while Faust flew on his own like usual. When they first arrived, they startled the guards by coming in from the dark night sky and everyone except Eleora is currently wearing the stone mask, so it is normal for the mayor's guard to be suspicious of them. But with Eleora guaranteeing their identities, the guards soon lowered their weapons and let them in.
They are greeted by the servant of the house before they are led into a room and served tea before the servant comes back inside and tells them to wait inside before the mayor comes in. Although they wanted to try and taste the tea, their stone mask prevented them from drinking it and after weighing the consequences, Faust and Angra decided to give up tasting a possibly expensive and tasty cup of tea at the expense of their identities.
'Faust, should we hunt magic beasts with soft and silk-like skin next time? These chairs are very comfortable!'
'Although it is not as comfortable as the sofas back on earth, compared to our usual wooden chair, I agree that these chairs are way better to sit on. So maybe if we found a magic sheep or something, let's make a sofa with it.'
'Alright, let's go tomorrow!'
'No thank you, Gra, aren't you already tired from today's event? Let's just train our magic at home tomorrow. And don't forget that we're still here because our mission hasn't finished yet, we still have to meet Eleora's parents.'
'Okay'
'It is quite fun actually, for us to get to know people our biological age and see what is considered ordinary or normal kids in this world.'
'Yeah it was quite fun, I got 2 levels from killing all the kidnappers and their boss. So I should be 1 level above you right?'
'Yes, but don't worry about that, with the zombie crew, it won't take me long to catch up to you Gra,'
'That damn cheating skill' Angra said while clicking his tongue
'Oi, who is the one that is able to gain attributes by only eating souls?' Faust retorted
They wanted to continue on a full-on argument before finally steps could be heard outside the door and the twins decided to do a cease-fire for now.
The servant walked up to the door and opened it, finally showing The mayor and his wife standing behind the door. They wore what seems to be more formal attire than the one that the mayor used in his private room earlier, and also more accessories decorated their clothes.
The twins looked at their father who is currently standing and slightly bowed to the mayor before they finally followed him standing and slightly bowing their heads. While Eleora jumped up from her seat and hugged her parents tightly. After comforting their daughter, the mayor and his wife then walked up to Mark and the twins.
"Please take a seat." the mayor said after going up on the opposite side of the table and he sat down together with them. Then the six of them sat together around the table, Eleora besides his mom at the opposite side of them.
"First of all, thank you very much for saving my daughter." Both the mayor and his wife bowed their heads to Mark and the twins. The twins were startled but didn't do or say anything, while Mark hurriedly told the mayor that it was okay and he didn't need to bow to them.
Mark then told them the stories that they are The Travelling Mages Group and they are currently passing through this region through the Forest of Beast to go to the other kingdom in search of a certain item. And when they are resting in the village, they hear that the mayor's daughter is kidnapped and decide to help since they are in the area.
Then they succeeded in tracking down the kidnappers and stormed their base to save Eleora. Mark also explained that the burning house in the village right now is caused by the crossfire of their spells from fighting the many kidnappers in their basecamp.
"Once again thank you for saving my daughter, it is my fault that I let her outside the house."
"But father.."
"Don't make excuses El, this whole incident was caused by your doings."
Eleora wanted to say something, but in the end, she decided to just stay quiet.
Seeing that Eleora is once again didn't dare to speak out what she wanted to say, Angra said
"I'm sorry mayor sir, but maybe you should consider her feelings a little."
"Gra, don't be rude to the mayor" Mark scolded him.
The mayor then stopped Mark and said, "Please let him continue."
"She said that she sneaked out of the house because she felt lonely and bored at home. She is curious about the outside world and wanted to explore them, but since little, she didn't go out much or at all. So maybe if you let her go out sometimes, this kind of incident should not have happened."
"I see, thank you for the advice, I will deeply consider it later."
Eleora then smiled and looked at Angra, although she didn't know what kind of face Angra is making right now, and she didn't even know his face at all, she is really grateful to whoever is behind that mask.
"As for the rewards, is there anything that I can help you guys with?"
"No, we're not doing this for anything in particular."
"But you're still the one who saved my daughter, I can't just leave you empty-handed, it won't be good to my conscience."
"Don't worry, we mean it. The important thing is that Eleora is safe. And now we would like to continue our journey."
"Wait, at least please take this."
The mayor then took out a badge from his pocket and gave it to them.
"This is my badge, I may not be an important noble in this kingdom, but this badge can save you from some problems that you may encounter while you are in this kingdom. Please take it as my sign of gratitude."
"Alright, then we'll take this. Thank you, we'll be leaving now."
Then they head out of the house to escort them outside the house. Then Mark flew with Angra on his shoulder and Faust followed behind.
Eleora looked at her savior and friends before she shouted,
"JUST YOU GUYS WAIT FOR ME!"
Angra and Faust looked at her once again before disappearing into the night sky.